Allen Apblett

Allen Apblett received a B.Sc.(Honours) degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1984 and a Ph.D from The University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Tristam Chivers in 1989. He was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship that he took up at Harvard University in Dr. Andrew Barron’s research group. In 1991 he became an assistant professor at Tulane University and then moved to Oklahoma State University in 1997 where he is a Professor. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Ceramic Society, and the National Academy of Inventors. He is also an Izaac Walton Killam Fellow. Among the awards that that he has received are the Oklahoma Chemist of the Year, ACS Environmental Division Certificate of Merit, selection as a member of Project Kaleidoscope’s Faculty for the 21st Century, a Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching, Sigma Xi lecturer, Oklahoma State University Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year, a Lilly Teaching Fellowship, and the Governor General of Canada’s Medal. His research targets problems that are faced by industry and society today.

He has fashioned, innovative ways to produce high technology ceramics for use in electronics, medicine, water purification, homeland security, pollution prevention and remediation, and catalysis. He also developed a “one-pot” conversion of minerals to useful polymers that may one day replace petroleum-derived polymers as the world’s supply of oil dwindles. Most recently, he has developed metal oxide and carboxylate materials that are capable of selectively removing radionuclides and heavy metals and arsenic from water, juice and rice syrup and can also be used to “mine” the ocean for useful metals such as uranium.